It is January 28th, 1986, seven members of the Challenger Space Shuttle take off for an exploration of a lifetime, but never return. The entire United States is watching this tragedy unfold. Later that evening Ronald Reagan, the president, gets on national television to deliver the State of the Union Address. Instead, he gives the “Speech on the Challenger Disaster.” President Reagan uses tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools, to commend and mourn the seven with the Nation. President Reagan is sympathetic and passionate when condoling and grieving with people of the United States. The tone of president Reagan is somber and optimistic, and his purpose is to promote NASA and commemorate the astronauts in order to calm the audience …show more content…
Reagan uses credibility, a part of ethos, to explain to children the unexplainable. He compassionately says, “I want to say something to the school children… I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful thing like this happen” (Reagan 5). He also consoles … the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we’re thinking about you so very much. (Reagan 3) This sentence shows he is a compassionate, wise, and considerate man, who wants the families to know they are not alone. Ronald Reagan uses pathos to create deep emotions within his audience “We’ve never had a tragedy like this. And perhaps we’ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle;” (Reagan 2). He is saying that this is not the end of the space program, but another chapter and “Perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun. We’re still pioneers. They, the member of the challenger crew, were pioneers” (Reagan 4). This tragedy is new and scary for the American people. Even though we do not exactly know how to deal with a situational tragedy like this, we must stand together. The usage of ethos and pathos shows how much Ronald Reagan, the president, truly does care for the …show more content…
Reagan uses parallel structure to create a lasting impression, “ But we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this” (Reagan 2) He uses parallel structure as a source for repetition, except that the first word is repeated for effect, not full sentences. “They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us” (Reagan 3). He achieved his purpose by the use of rhetorical tools with the use of parallel structure. Reagan uses the rhetorical tools to emphasize. He lists each astronaut to mourn their deaths with the public, “We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe” (Reagan 2). Listing each name signifies how important it is that the nation knows who gave their life for this exploration. Reagan also uses words with positive connotation to put the audience on his side and to make the words he is speaking feel warm and inviting “I’ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program, and what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don’t hide our space program” (Reagan 6). President Reagan uses rhetorical tools to accomplish his purpose of hope to the American people and to commemorate the seven astronauts who gave their lives on
Reagan spoke with passion and sorrow. But he showed an appreciation and respect for those who fought. He uses the word “we” very often, which unites the people and shows union. In his speech he uses the word we 19 times to show the bond between us as a people, and as a nation. He uses rhetorical questions asking why they served and fought till their last breath. “You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.”(Reagan). He answers his questions with love and loyalty for their families and their country. Reagan uses this in his speech to make the audience think deeply about why the men did what they did and
Thatcher used a pathos appeal to get the audience to feel bad for the passing of Reagan. With this, she gets the audience to feel sorry for her dear friend, and makes them feel the sorrow that she endures. One example of this is shown on lines one through two, “We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend.” These lines get the reader to
Due to the rapidly changing America, in his farewell address, Ronald Reagan expresses the need for unification of America, and America’s culture. In Reagan’s address, he uses many rhetorical devices to advance his purpose of unifying America, for instance, Reagan utilizes tone, syntax, and pathos to portray his pride, hopefulness, and patriotism for America. He uses these devices to show Americans of the unification America needs.
Ronald Reagan, the former 40th president of the United States died on June 5th of 2004. A couple of days later on the 11th, Margaret Thatcher the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, wrote an eulogy for Ronald Reagan. In this eulogy, Thatcher uses rhetorical strategies to convince her readers into believing what she states. She uses the strategies of parallelism, pathos and diction to get her message out and to help her reader receive it. And thus Thatcher can convince her readers into believing what she says.
Thatcher uses contrast to set Reagan aside from everyone else in the way he ran his country. Once again, using the example of “Others… He…” Thatcher tells of the fear, doubt, and uncertainty many Americans faced, while describing Reagan as the great inspirational leader who boosted morale, spread reassurance, and brought back hope into the suffering peoples’ lives. Contrasting this heroic president to devastated citizens helps to portray him as a ray of light during dark times.
Reagan adds his feelings of faith and respect in our space program and the people at NASA who make it possible. He goes on to assure that space exploration will continue. While addressing the school children who were watching, Reagan states that "the future belongs to the brave." He also states unfortunately painful things like this sometimes happen and sadly it is all part of the process of exploration and discovery(Reagan)”. He ends his speech with a beautifully articulated conclusion. ”The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, or the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God(Reagan).” “The last line was taken from a sonnet written by WWII pilot John Gillespie Magee titled "High Flight", but was a very memorable way to end the speech.
Though connecting the speaker, the audience, and the subject are important for an author, it is also crucial to use literary appeals to draw in readers successfully. One of the appeals used- ethos- shows Safire’s credibility when he was the president’s speechwriter. In addition, logos, which appeals to readers through logic, was displayed since the speech was mourning the astronauts. The mood of what was supposed to be a joyous event becomes somber in that the president has to state the unimaginable disaster that could’ve happened. With this, the author uses pathos by honoring the two astronauts for their mettle and stating that all of America would be mourning them. Also, the tone becomes solemn and encouraging because the author displays the pathos in that way. Safire includes that “ in their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man” which makes the reader feel sad but proud to have such men to “serve” the
Former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, in her eulogy, describes the strides that Ronald Reagan accomplished. Thatcher’s purpose is to honor Ronald Reagan during his time as a former United States of America President. She establishes a genuine tone in order to appeal to the grief and mournings of American citizens.
In conclusion, President Reagan was operative in convincing his audience that he was the right choice for who should lead the U.S. I firmly believe that Ronald Reagan was the last good President we had in office. He not only kept to his word, but also was able to inspire the American people and remind them what hope was and what it looked and felt like. Shown through this piece, it is evident that he was an eloquent communicator and an overall persuasive orator. By using pathos, rhetorical questioning,
His speech is stirring, remembering the great contributions to history of fallen and living soldiers of all nationalities who fought for their beliefs in the Second World War. Reagan’s dramatic and detailed descriptions of the heroism of the Army Rangers are skillfully complemented by his use of rhetorical devices such as tetracolon, anaphora, tautology, and synchises. His eloquent yet simple style allows him to weave vivid images of history into his listeners and readers’ minds, adding a new dimension to his speaking. Reagan’s speech surely served its purpose: to commemorate the actions of the Rangers, to commemorate the power of unity, and to commemorate as well as celebrate the dedication, bravery, and spirit that makes the American people
The last element of the rhetorical situation is speech. Reagan’s primary objective of this speech was to show his condolence to those of who suffered from the accident and involve audience to join for grief. Throughout his speech his ideas were carried in a coherent way, without deviating from his objective. Reagan achieved this through using various words and phrases that magnify his emotion. Using phrases such as “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god” illustrated his feeling towards the situation without much of explanation. In addition, because he understood that the audience of this particular speech consisted of diversity of
Which category of occasion does Reagan’s Challenger address fit into? According to Zarefsky, the occasion of a speech can be ceremonial, deliberative or forensic. A eulogy fits into the category of a ceremonial speech in a way that “it reaffirms a community’s common bonds and values, strengthening ties between individuals and the group”. The Challenger address was first and foremost a eulogy because it was meant to honor and commemorate the deceased Challenger crew; however, there were also deliberative elements in this speech. As Zarefsky stated in his book, deliberative speaking aims to answer the question “What shall we do?” in confrontation with an exigency. In his speech, Reagan deliberately embedded a message regarding “what we shall do” in the wake of the Challenger tragedy and that message was reinforced several times during the address. By calling the Challenger crew “pioneers” and emphasizing “we’ll continue to follow them” and “we’ll continue our quest in space”, the message Reagan wanted to deliver was crystal clear: although what happened to Challenger was tragic, it was part of the cost to all great adventures, and the United States would not cease its space operations
While seated in the Oval Office of the White house, January 28, 1986 President Ronald Reagan delivers his speech The Challenger Disaster; hours after the space shuttle The Challenger explodes while in take off. Thousands witnessed this horrifying event live in person and on television. This mission was very unique allowing the first civilian to ever be allowed in space during a mission. She was aboard The Challenger as an observer in the NASA Teacher in Space Program. Ironically, nineteen years before this disaster, three astronauts were tragically lost in an accident on the ground. President Reagan remembers those astronauts that were lost not only the day of the disaster, but also those who were lost nineteen years before. He conducts
As a result, Reagan’s popularity slipped from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week (Mayer). By the time, it was the low point of the Reagan presidency (157, Ehrman) Add to this situation, the failure of space program led to negative ethos of Reagan in public’s mind. President Reagan understood this situation and tried to calm the hostilities by delivering the speech sincerely.
Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Orlando, Florida on March 8, 1983 called, “The Evil Empire.” This speech was intended for the ears of all Americans and is one of the best known presidential speeches ever given. In his speech, Reagan uses multiple rhetorical strategies such as; metaphors, allusions, rhetorical questions, tone, pathos, and uses references from the bible. He talks about all the main points of abortion, teenage sex, drugs, the Soviet Union, and the practice of praying and God in our public schools. His speech was very well written, moving, and extremely influential. This speech shows the president’s belief that the